Face painting?

[Gardenarian]

My dd, 13, is pretty good at face painting and decided she wanted to try it out as a job. Well, she has her first job coming up right away, and she only has a small face painting set. She is going to need to get some large sized, hopefully inexpensive supplies. She is also open to making some of her own stuff.

Does anyone have experience with this? Where to get supplies, what you need to get started, how to make supplies? Any other tips?? (For example, I'm thinking she'll want a big apron.)

We're really excited about this!
:cool:

[Gardenarian]

Oh, the gig is at a Halloween dance for homeschoolers, so I think there will be a lot of business!

[treehugger]

Sounds like fun. I have no idea about face paints and other supplies like that, but I would think it would be helpful to have a poster or book of pictures of her designs (or at least designs she knows she can do) for her customers to choose from. Most people need a visual aid to choose what they want for something like that.

Kara

[Valley]

i agree. My girlfriend and I painted faces a few times for a hospital's Christmas party. We each made a chart of what we knew we could draw (and be recognizable) and put it out for the children to choose from. We got our make-up supplies from Michael's. They have a coupon in their weekly flyers...or you can print one off of their online site. Good luck!

[BayouGirl]

Check the library for some books on face painting books. We had a great selection of them at the library. Or you print a few pages from the internet the face painting designs that you want to try. The books are great because they are in color and you can study them before hand, get some practice drawing them even if it is with pencil and paper. You can also bring the book with you for reference to help kids see and decide what they want easily.

[Tussiemussies]

It sounds like a great experience for her and something that is enjoyable for her too. Glad she has a way to make some money. I'm sure she will feel a sense of pride afterward!

[Jilly]

Inexpensive supplies can be found at costume shops. Some party supply stores carry them, as well. Dollar stores are great for containers, for water and for sanitizing the brushes/etc. between customers.

She will need a sturdy container in which to carry everything.
Face paints
Brushes, lots
Containers for water, several, so that there is always clean water for the final rinse for brushes
Paper toweling, which is not all that frugally-minded, but she would not be able to tote enough clean towels.
Wet wipes.
Some kind of table covering or mats on which she can arrange her supplies.

Think sanitary and easy. And, she should be fine with black, white and the six basic primary and secondary colors. Oh, and costume shop people are nice and will not try to up-sell you.

[peggy]

Actually, I think she can just use inexpensive acrylic paints, can't she? I think that is all face paint is. Google it and I'll bet she can use the cheap stuff.

[Mrs-M]

No experience with such, but I would seek the professional insight/advice of a certified Cosmetologist (any major drug store chain).

Face-paining, is that of a specialty, and to avoid skin woes associated with such, i.e., clogged pores, etc, getting a little entry level guidance never hurts.

[Square Peg]

Is there a Halloween super store near you?

[Gardenarian]

Thanks guys! Jilly, have you done face painting? I appreciate your taking the time to make the list - that will be a great help.
We have a Michael's and I think there is a Halloween store nearby - I hadn't thought of that!
I've ordered some books from the library (most are checked out - tis the season for costumes!) and need to get supplies ASAP. Her gig is next week and she needs to practice (as well as make a poster of the designs she will do.)

Thank you!

[Jilly]

Unfortunately, you cannot use acrylic paints on skin, although that would be nice and cheap.

The Halloween store is a great idea. They will have face paint on sticks, like those large craft sticks, larger than iced treat sticks. Because you remove pigment from them by using a wet brush, there is virtually no waste, and since she will be using clean brushes for each person, a quick wipe with a damp paper towel will clear the decks, so to speak, for the next customer.

The brushes do not have to be expensive, but those cheap stiff plastic bristle ones are too harsh for using on skin and it is nearly impossible to get a neat or fine edge on her designs. It is a good idea to have three times the number of brushes in relation to the number of colors. Eight colors, 24 brushes. That means that she can be using a set, have a set washed and resting in disinfectant (proper water/bleach mix, cannot remember the proportions, but it is probably on-line) and the third set set aside waiting for the next person. Gives any residual water/bleach a chance to evaporate, even though the disinfected brushes will be squeeze-dried with more paper toweling after soaking.

The brushes should mostly be fairly fine, no thick ones, as most of the design will be the outline with filled-in areas. Think thin, but not so sparse that she has to keep going back over the lines. You will know what I mean when you look at brushes.

The baby wipes can be used on the brushes if you need to change colors and have somehow run out of clean brushes, and they are excellent for removing small (or larger) mistakes. If you have more tissues on hand than you can ever use, those are nice to have, but quartering paper toweling ahead of time works just as well. Oh, and you also need a fairly large mirror so that your customer can see what you have done.

You probably have most of the other supplies on hand. It is very helpful to take a gallon jug (overkill probably, but better to have too much than run out) of a liquid soap and water mixture. It does not have to be warm to clean properly. Figure on using 3-4 sections of paper toweling per customer. This is also difficult to estimate.

You have easy access to a computer, yes? So, I am guessing that there are many sites about face painting. Have your daughter plan out and make display sheets for the designs she is willing to make; this is where your acrylic paints would come in handy! This way, customers can choose something that she is comfortable painting. There will certainly be the occasional person who wants something outrageous, like a full-face tiger or alien or some damn thing. After the first time we did this, having to decline the customer request, being ridiculed by him for not satisfying our customers...him...we decided to stick to our designs and when someone made a stupid special request we quoted a price of $50.00. Incredulity ensued, but it really is a fair price for an adult to paint on someone. It takes a very long time to plot out and paint such a design, and if someone wants to be the prince and demand what he wants, well, he can pay for it and shut up or walk away and shut up.

This kind of activity, like many other things, seems to attract jerks, who are mostly showing off for their friends. Now, since your daughter is performing this service for a school event that is much less likely to happen, but there is not anything wrong with being mentally prepared for someone like that.

For children, the most popular designs, to the best of my memory, are
smiley faces
rainbows
more rainbows
cat or dog faces, which are pink or tan nose tips, whiskers and either pointed or floppy ears on the upper portion of the forehead
stars
stars and moons
hearts
hearts with wings
butterflies
bumble bees (especially with a smiley face)
flowers
skulls, with or without crossbones
clown face, but do not let anyone talk her into a full face; triangles or circles above the eyes, round red cheeks, red nose, white around the mouth are enough

She might want to put prices on each of the designs, most of which should be sized to go on a person's cheek. And, should she decide to make larger designs, make the clown face and butterflies double what the other designs cost; just a thought.

If I have left anything out, just let me know. We did this for years at several outreach events every year. For year. A long time. Even at the end it was still fun. Mostly. :)

[Jilly]

One more thing. Children (and their parents) will request cartoon or popular culture critters/people. If your daughter can take such things down to simple, demonstrative shapes instead of finely detailed recreations, she might add the ones she likes doing to her design display sheets. Otherwise, she can decline by saying that this event is for easy and quick designs, but that she will consider the others for future events. Of course, she has to be willing to provide those the next time, even if she has to charge more for them. Saying that, about maybe doing them in the future, might even get her more gigs.

[Gardenarian]

WONDERFUL!! Thank you so much!
:thankyou:

[SteveinMN]

Gardenarian, I face-painted kids for several years when I was a hobbyist clown. You've gotten some excellent advice so far. Some more tips for your daughter:

- I used to keep a few stickers or even fancy bandages around for the kids who didn't want to be face-painted or the kids who simply would not stay still.
- I used real face paint and brushes. I tried the crayons and just didn't care for them -- it takes a long time for them to create a saturated color and sometimes I had too many kids waiting in line to spend that kind of time on getting the color I wanted.
- Speaking of saturation, some of the richer colors sometimes were harder to wash out than others -- red in particular. If the design required a lot of red, I sometimes put down a white or orange "base coat" so the red wasn't on the kid's face after washing.
- Proper face paint is washable with soap/shampoo and water. Baby shampoo on a cotton swab or folded paper towel works as well as baby wipes and costs less, though baby wipes are easier to use.
- Some places I worked at let us use glitter; others didn't care for the mess. Wherever you buy your face paints/crayons, you can buy appropriate glitter -- finely "ground" and made of plastic, not metal. Don't cheap out here and use greeting card glitter or such.
- Some kids didn't like getting their faces painted. Your daughter can offer to paint wrists, backs of hands, shins/calves (if visible). Sometimes the kids object to not being able to see what's going on, so they can either hold the mirror or get the paint somewhere they can watch.
- I second the recommendation of creating a board (or boards) containing the designs your daughter can draw (especially ones she can do well on a squirming kid or in a rush). At high-volume engagements (holiday parties, etc.), if there are lots of kids waiting, it helps to show them a limited number of designs they can choose from so they don't spend minutes trying to decide. Lots of times, I still was able to personalize the design. For example, if I was drawing a snowman, I asked the child what their favorite color was so the scarf could be that color.
- I do have to say that I'm not a fan of drawing known cartoon characters or team logos and the like. That's someone else's copyrighted/trademarked material and you really should have written permission before you reproduce it -- especially if you're doing it for profit. Just my humble opinion.
- Jilly mentioned "jerks". Another consideration, which is probably less important to a teenage girl face-painting than it was to a middle-aged man, is to avoid any movement that could be interpreted as an "unwanted touch". Especially if I was face-painting a tweenage or older girl, my hands were always visible. Better to be safe than to give any suggestion that anything even could happen.

I had lots of fun face-painting and I gave it up only when I stopped being a clown. I hope your daughter enjoys it, too.

[shadowmoss]

My friend is a professional face painter, and she uses paints made especially for that so that there is no concern with skin reactions and such. Don't cheap out on the paints.

[Gardenarian]

Thanks again guys - this is all so helpful. I got dd some stuff at Michael's (always good coupons for that store) and she is practicing on all her friends. I got her Snazaroo brand - the colors seem very saturated and they are easy to use. And - there is glitter gel, which works like a charm!